Abugida

Comparison of various abugidas descended from Brahmi script. May Śiva bless those who take delight in the language of the gods. (Kalidasa)

An Abugida is a writing system which is between syllabic and alphabetic scripts. In such systems, sequences of consonants and vowels are written as a unit: each unit is based on the consonant letter. Vowels need to be written down as well, but are secondary. This is different from a truly alphabetic script, where vowels and consonants have the same status, and an abjad, where vowels are absent, or can be left out. Examples of abugidas are Ethiopic, as well as some languages found on the Indian subcontinent. Certain forms of Shorthand use diacritics for vowels.